Adventure Time: the Journey Prior
by Blahblahcutie
Summary: You know Finn and Jake? You know their histories? Do you know the land they live in? Do you know IT'S histories? No. You DON'T. This is a story of Ooo's youth. This is the story before the Lich King. The story of the evil BEFORE he was released. Post Mushroom War. -Rated T for bloodgore- Drama in the beginning, humor later. Marceline in the second chapter.


**A/N: this is my first story DON'T JUDGE :( **

**My Own Note: Hello, there, peoples. I am Guerrilla Warfare, and here is a story brought to you by me, and the wonderful BlahBlahCuteface. She, unfortunately, is not as "good" as I am at putting word to paper (not that I'm good at it anyway) and has entrusted me the sacred task of putting her words to paper. (That is code for, "I freaked out at her until she let me, telling her not to look for a Beta because she had no idea who she was entrusting this sacred task to, and, at least with me, she knew the person.)**

**Okay, so, those who know me know my track record for gore and hilarity, so have no fears. It will get funny later on. Backstories are always depressing, so it's completely fine.**

**This chapter will be split into two parts because I just had WAY too much to write for our own little Anne Frank-I MEAN, Anny. (PFT!)**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer:i do not own adventure time yet i do one time adventure :D i do not get paid for adventure time but i get paid air bucks for TIME ADVENTURE :D**

**Chapter One: Anny. Pt. 1**

In the land of Ooo there are many important people that you may know. You know their stories, their likes, their hidden pasts, but what of those you _don't_ know? This is a story about before the hero boy Finn and his faithful dog Jake appeared in the land. This is a story about before the land was peaceful. Before the Lich King was freed then conquered by the boy. Before, even, the Candy Kingdom, the center of Ooo, was even established beyond a city.

This is a story of how all that came to be.

* * *

We begin our tale with a young human girl, barely six years of age, playing in a field behind a house on her father's shoulders. They were at a barbecue in the woods just beyond the desert outside the City of Thieves with a large gathering of friends and family.

Her mother sat watching them on the back porch, sipping slowly on a glass of bumble berry juice, the girl's mother's sister's very own creation. She watched amusedly as her daughter pulled on her husband's ears and hair, steering him along as they played airplane, shooting down invisible enemies with their lasers. They had just disappeared behind a large boulder when she heard a loud roar. She stood up quickly and turned around, being tackled before she could even register what she saw.

Out in the field, the girl and her father heard the same sound, pausing immediately to try and discern what it was.

"Honey?" the girl's father called, attempting to get an answer from his wife, but obtaining none. He picked his daughter up off of his shoulders and set her on the ground, motioning for her to stay quiet as he sneaked along the boulder they were behind to peek beyond it.

When his eyes landed on their home, he stilled immediately, his breathing stopped completely. Curious, the girl followed her dad and looked beyond the boulder, her eyes widening and her jaw dropping at what she saw.

Their home was a blood bath. There were bodies everywhere, the grass's lush green no longer even a factor underneath the red. There were guts and body parts, and there were large black and white beasts with glowing eyes creating more. They were ripping into her aunts and uncles, her cousins and her friends; they were even eating all the meat and the side dishes that were set up on a table.

Worst of all, though, was the fact that one of them had her mother, still alive, in its mouth, and was shaking her violently.

Their gazes met briefly, her mother's eyes pleading for her to run, to find someplace safe and hide, but the girl was frozen. She couldn't move.

She was shocked from her trance when her father grabbed her arm and pulled her quickly behind the rock, eliciting a sharp yelp from her. He pulled her to him and buried her face in his chest, holding his breath as he heard growls settle and large steps come closer. He knew they would be found, so he released his daughter and gently grabbed her face, touching their foreheads together.

"Anny, I need you to do something for me." he whispered, trying to be as quiet as possible so that the beasts wouldn't speed up in their search for them.

"D-daddy?" Anny asked, her eyes tearing up as she realized what her father was doing. "We're gonna save Mommy, right?"

"Yes, _I'm_ gonna save her," her father said, kissing her cheeks and pulling her into a hug. "But you're going to hide."

"Hide?" Anny asked, pushing out of the hug and looking her father in the eyes, her gaze serious. "If I hide, you'll come find me?"

"Yes, Anny, like hide n' find." her father said, nodding his head. He froze again as his ears picked up deep, rattling breaths just on the other side of the rock. "Now I need you to run, run all the way to your Uncle John's house in the City, and don't look back. I'm going to get your mother and we'll meet you there later."

He let her go and turned her around, looking behind him and seeing what looked to be the head of a bear-like creature looking the opposite way.

"B-but Daddy, Uncle John is creepy!"

"Go now!" he said, pushing her and turning towards the beast.

"Daddy!" Anny shouted, looking back at him as he yelled at the creature and drew it away from her.

She watched after them, her eyes being drawn back to the house to meet the gaze of a human-like shadow standing on the roof, staring straight at her with glowing eyes, the same mystic purple as the beasts'. The figure smiled, sending sharp chills up Anny's sides giving her the final push she needed to turn and run.

And run she did. She ran and ran, ignoring the roars and screams, the sounds on flesh tearing behind her. She ran, tripped, got up, and continued, then she ran some more. She ran until she could no longer, and then she jogged. When she could not jog, she walked. When she could not walk, she stumbled. She did not stop until she made her way to the front door of her Uncle John's house, and knocked.

She heard loud grumbling and swearing before the door opened and revealed a grouchy old man just older than her father.

"I said I wasn't going to your bonking barbecue, Smiff, so go away-" the man stopped his tirade when he looked down and saw an exhausted and scared little girl whose face was covered in dry tears.

"Anny?" he asked softly. "Is that you?" he hadn't seen his niece in a few years, so he wasn't sure, but when she nodded her head and fresh tears started to roll he dropped to his knees and pulled her into a tight hug.

"U-uncle J-jo-hn-" Anny tried to say through hiccups. Her uncle shushed her and held her tighter, stroking her hair and scaring away the thieves who were inching ever closer with a glare.

"Come inside, dear, and let's get you cleaned up."

* * *

There she lived for four years, waiting for her parents to show up and take her from the dark place the city was. She and her uncle did not get along great, for she was too much like her parents, and he and they were never on good terms, but he taught her how to take care of herself.

He took her out immediately after the first day and trained her in the skills she'd need to live in the city safely. He taught her how to hide, he taught her how to sneak, he taught her how to keep her belongings safe from prying eyes and lithe hands. Most importantly, he taught her how to steal.

She became good at all these things the four years she spent there. She had become the best of the best next to the King himself who had trapped himself in his tower. Her small size and agility had been her greatest asset, and, using these, she had earned herself the title as the Theif's Jewel.

She was fed up, however, with living in this city, with fighting day in and day out with her uncle. She missed the solitude of nature, and she knew her parents were never coming for her, so, after a particularly nasty fight with her uncle in which he verbally disowned her, she took what she needed, filling a back pack, and left. She, instead of waiting for her parents to come for her, was going to find _them_.

She headed straight out of the city, on a beeline for her former home. She wasn't going to bother herself with roads that took her every which way before landing her back at her house for that took much too long. Besides, the path she took away from her parents was burned into her head.

She walked straight for the house, determined to get there as fast as possible, but the half hour walk there lengthened and lengthened in reluctance. Every step closer she took, her pace halved until she was moving no faster than a snail.

However, she was forced to face the inevitable and eventually approached the little house with the back porch that her mother loved to sit on and watch as she and her father played in the field.

Though she promised herself she wouldn't cry, she could not help the tears that sprung up at the memory. She would not let them fall, however, and slapped her cheeks, breathing deeply in and out, calming herself down.

She was a strong girl. She would not cry.

Anny gulped audibly, forcing down the rather large lump forming in her throat, and took a quick step forward. She flinched, expecting something to show up and jump out at her, wanting to finish the task it had started. A panda, perhaps (for that was what she had learned from her uncle had attacked her at the behest of the figure), or maybe even the figure itself, but no such luck.

Nothing happened, and after a few moments of bracing herself, Anny relaxed, letting out a deep sigh. She smiled slightly, despite the nature of her quest, confidence growing now that she knew that the evil previously residing here had moved on.

She proceeded quickly forward, eager to get the daunting first step in her new life out of the way. She had told herself that she was ready to face what she knew was there, but she, still being a child, couldn't help but harbor the secret hope that her parents were still alive. The hope that just as she turned the corner around their house that her parents would be waiting for her as if nothing had happened.

Because of that hidden hope, she was all the more crushed when she rounded the corner and saw the remains of the barbecue's attendants.

The bodies were everywhere. A swift count showed that none were missing, and Anny felt her soul shatter. The bodies were a mix of bones, picked clean by wild animals, and fleshy skeletons, the meat having not rotted completely off.

If the sight of the carnage wasn't bad enough for the young girl, once the wind shifted and the smell hit her, she was pushed over the edge. She fell to the ground, convulsing, her stomach emptying itself onto the lush grass.

The bodies had been great fertilizer.

After Anny's stomach was officially emptied and her throat sore and scratchy from the mix of stomach acid and dry heaving, she sat back on her heels, her face red.

And though she told herself she wouldn't cry, she couldn't help the tears streaming down her face and the loud, heart wrenching sobs from shaking her form. The sound echoed down the hills, scaring every animal for miles into their hiding spots.

Soon, day dwindled into evening and evening dwindled into night while sobs dwindled into silent tears and silent tears dwindled into infrequent hiccups and sniffles.

Anny rubbed her face and looked up at the sky, her eyes dead. She took a sparing glance around her and noticed something oddly shaped stuck to one of the bodies. She crawled slowly towards it, picking it up and bringing it to her face to study it. She paid the bodies around her no heed, no longer able to care.

She looked at the fur, for that was what it was, in disgust. She recognized it as a remnant of the beasts that had ruined her life, and it fuelled her with pure hatred. She stood up, reared her arm back, and threw the fur. The wind, however, had other ideas and blew the clump back in her face and down the collar of her too-large shirt.

She yelped as her body was set aflame in itchiness, jumping away from the bodies and un-tucking her shirt from her shorts and trying to shake it out. She couldn't get it all out, however, and just settled for scratching everywhere as red welts started to pop up all over her torso, spreading quickly to her face and limbs.

She laughed bitterly at the irony of her discovery, finding her allergy just a cruel joke the universe had played on her. Hadn't she been through enough?

She ran quickly away from the scene of her family's physical, and her emotional, deaths. She was not going back to the city, that was for certain. She no longer had a home there with her uncle, but even if she had, she wouldn't have returned anyway.

No, she needed a new life. One that started with a bath.

* * *

Hence she wandered for eight years. She had many temporary dwellings, but nothing she could ever have truly called home. She would wander from town to town, from forest to forest, river to river, sometimes going for weeks at a time without seeing another sentient being.

Anny did not dwell on her past. She forced herself to display emotions when needed, but would always fall back on what she could only ever truly feel in solitude. Her anger, and, when in moments of nothing but nature, a calming sense of fleeting peace, were her constant companions in her journey.

When she was hungry, she would forage for food. Whether this meant looking for roots or berries, hunting small creatures, or making use of her title as the Jewel, she did it all. The last one least often of them all to her chagrin. She was worried she would become rusty in her skills, but she practiced whenever she could.

She tried many times to make friends, attempting to fill the void in her life that the death of her family had left, but when they started to ask questions that went deeper than what she had done the day prior, she would clam up and start to avoid them. Eventually, she would leave, never returning just in case they would recognize her.

She was a lonely child.

She kept up her wanderings until the middle of her eighth winter on her own, where she found herself stuck on a mountain in the middle of a blizzard. In hindsight, climbing a mountain that everyone said was impossible just because they _said_ it was impossible was probably a bad idea, but she was stubborn and wouldn't turn around for anything.

She stumbled through the snow, hugging herself tightly, trying to preserve the last vestiges of warmth left in her body, but it was in vain when she would stumble and fall, snow getting inside her clothes and chilling her. Her clothing turned to ice, but she stumbled on, refusing to give up.

She didn't know why, but she felt like she had to prove something to the villagers at the base of the mountain. She had to make her way over and to the Unknown Lands and back. She just had to.

Even though she would not turn back, she was near giving up on going any further. It was too cold and the weather was too harsh for her to survive. Her mind told her to hold on, that she had more to do, but her body said that it was on its last go and was about to run out of fuel.

She was on her back, having fallen Glob knows how many times, about to pass out, when she saw through bleary eyes and fog a cave. She blinked when she saw a figure standing at the mouth of the cave, and when it didn't disappear, she blinked again.

"Hey!"

Anny could barely hear the voice of the figure, but she recognized it as male. She blinked rapidly, seeing that the man was waving at her, and tried to get up. She fell quickly back down, however. She could no longer move on her own.

"Hey, you! Get up and come over here!"

Anny didn't know what was happening, but she felt as if she was a marionette and someone was controlling her movements. She got up and started to stumble towards the cave. When she would trip, she would somehow right herself and not fall. It was quite surreal.

"Hey, are you okay?" the man, who was revealed to be middle-aged with pointy ears, red eyes, and pale grey-blue skin, said with what Anny could easily tell was false concern.

She didn't care, however, and ignored him, not being able to say anything anyway, even if she had wanted to. She could tell, even in her weakened state of mind, that this man had a hidden agenda and could possibly mean her harm, but she didn't care. She had been about to die before this man had intervened, and as far as she was concerned, her life was forfeit to him.

"Here, rest by my fire," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder and walking with her to the end of the cave. She heard a sharp snapping sound and noticed the cave lighting up in the orange glow of a fire she could have sworn was not there a second ago.

She, again, did not pay it any heed and just let the force carrying her drop her on the far side of the fire where she sat, back to the cave wall. The man sat opposite her, blocking the entrance and effectively trapping her inside the cave if she were to want to escape. Not that she did. She was enjoying the warmth of the fire and the fact that she wasn't being buffeted by large chunks of ice.

"So, tell me," the man said, lacing his fingers in front of him and resting his chin on the bridge they made. "Where do you hail from?"

Anny wasn't going to answer, but she was suddenly filled with the strong urge to please this man. She, without any consent from her own mind, just blurted out the answer as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"The City of Thieves." she said almost absentmindedly. Her voice was hoarse from dehydration and underuse, but the man ignored that as he hummed in appreciation.

"I see…" he mused, a sickly sweet smile forming on his lips. "And tell me…" he trailed off, searching for a name, which Anny's body was all too ready to supply.

"Anastasia Franklin."

"…Anastasia, do you have any family?"

"No. I used to have an uncle, but he disowned me eight years ago and I haven't seen him since. I'm all alone…" Anny trailed off at that last bit, a single tear streaming down her face, but other than that, no emotion was present.

The _man's_ eyes, however, lit up with interest and what could only be described as hope.

"So you wouldn't have anyone close to you at all? No one to, say, miss you? To recognize you on the streets?"

"No."

"Perfect." with that said, the man lunged, the fire between them going out as if it had never been there in the first place.

Anny's survival instincts kicked in as she tried to move out of the way and run, but even though the fire had briefly provided her warmth and comfort, she was far from recovered enough to be doing anything fast enough to dodge a man lunging for her throat.

The man hit her, her head knocking hard with a resounding crack against the rock behind her, keeping her from moving any more than she had tried. He hissed and bit into her neck, causing Anny to yell out on pain as she felt something be injected into her. With a last bit if adrenaline charged strength, she pushed the… the _creature_ off of her, her hands flying immediately to the bite on her neck.

Two puncture holes were there, and surprisingly, they weren't bleeding.

She stayed in that position for what seemed like forever, but was actually a few seconds, before her entire body went numb. She could not move a muscle. She was surprised her heart was still beating, or her lungs were still breathing, albeit with much difficulty.

What was the worst to her in that situation, however, was that she couldn't even close her eyes to at least shield herself from the unimaginable horrors this man was sure to commit to her.

"I know what you're thinking." the creature said from his spot on the floor. Anny's eyes focused in on him, revealing to her that his eyes were closed as if he were fighting something and he was smiling as if he were in pure ecstasy. "You're wondering what I have done to you. Why you can't move. Well, I'll tell you." he opened his eyes, his pupils now glowing a bright red.

Anny stared, transfixed, into his eyes, unable to look away. They seemed as if they pulsed and beat like a heart, but at the same time, they were still as death itself. She would know.

"I injected you with my venom." he said, smiling wide. "Didn't know if I could do it, after having gone so long without a meal, but I did!" he seemed proud of himself. "You see, my venom is meant to incapacitate my victims. Its effects are instantaneous, so there's no fighting whatsoever when I eat. It takes away their movement for a short time, but, if given in large enough quantities and left alone for a period of time, it will eventually kill."

Outside, Anny may have been as still as a statue, but inside, her mind was racing like a giant falcon on a mission. The knowledge of her impending doom cleared her foggy state of mind so that she was free to think, not that it would do her any good if she could not act on her thoughts.

Was she going to die? Before she got to avenge her parents? Heck, before she got to even find out _what it was_ that had killed them in the first place? In another part of her mind, she could not help but think about this odd creature in front of her. Who was he? _What_ was he? What was he doing supposedly _living_ in a cave on a mountain that was said to be uninhabitable? And why in the world would he invite strangers into a cave only to bite them and then talk to them as if he hadn't had company in decades?

All these thoughts and more ran through her mind, but they brought her no closer to any answers, only making her more confused.

The creature, who, while Anny was lost in her thoughts, had begun to carve something in the cave floor with what looked to be a claw-like fingernail, looked up and smiled. He smiled wide, showing off very sharp looking canines which were longer than before.

"You are wondering what I am?" he raised his eyebrows in question, seeming to have picked up on Anny's train of thought. He quickly finished his engraving and stood up from his spot kneeling on the ground, brushing dirt off his trouser legs. He stood, back straight, almost regally, his eyes alight with insanity. "My name is Alistair McDermish, and I, my _sweet_ Anastasia, am a _vampire_."

Anny looked at the man blankly. She had never heard of a vampire before, and she wasn't quite so sure why Alistair seemed so proud of himself. Was being a vampire really that wonderful? It didn't seem so to Anny right then.

"I understand your apparent confusion," Alistair said, chuckling flatly. His eyes no longer held such prominent insanity, but you could see it if you looked, along with burning hatred, masked poorly behind false humor. "We are an old race, few and far between. You are a lucky human to have the opportunity of becoming one of us."

"One of… you?" Anny tried to speak aloud, but all that would come out was a low moaning through closed lips as she strained against the numbness entombing her.

"Come, let us start." Alistair clapped his hands and seemed to float over towards her. A quick inspection of his feet showed her he was indeed floating. How useful that would be for sneaking.

Alistair grabbed Anny by the underarms and lifted her without effort, carrying her to and then laying her in a giant pentagram. It was the most complex thing Anny had ever seen, seeming to have neither a beginning nor an end. It was conceived of swoops and swirls, forming many complex knots all woven together to create one large star.

The vampire, whose claws had previously receded into normal fingers, grew them back out and sliced them down Anny's arm. The blood flowed freely from her deep wounds, tinged a lighter color than was usual, filling up the grooves of the pentagram. Alistair licked his fingers, and then slashed his own arm, adding his own dripping, black goop into the grooves of the symbol, beginning to fill the opposite end from where Anny's blood had started.

He began to chant in an unfamiliar language as the two essences found each other in the middle and mixed, glowing purple. The glow intensified as the two bloods seemed to turn into a gas and rise from the ground, retaining its shape.

Anny's eyes finally closed, but before she could even begin a sigh of relief, images started to flash before her eyes as if being projected on the inside of her eyelids. She experienced everything she saw, from sights and sounds, to feelings and emotions.

She was learning her weaknesses. She was being taught what would kill her.

Outside of her head, she was floating five feet off the ground, the purple gas swirling violently around her as Alistair's chanting became louder. The gas moved faster and faster, engulfing her completely so that she was out of sight, before being absorbed into her through the bites in her neck and the claw marks on her arms in a final whoosh and a shout from Alistair.

When all was said and done, Anny was left floating there. Her eyes were still shut, and her body still numb. She did not want to move, for fear of what had just happened, but she knew she could if she tried. This was a new kind of numbness. Like if her whole body had just fallen asleep like a foot would if you sat on it for a long period of time.

She felt void of life. Much like how she felt when she saw the remnants of her family, but different. That was more on an emotional scale, but this was more physical.

"Do not fret, Anastasia," Alistair said. At the sound of her name, Anny's eyes shot open and her head snapped to the side, her blood red gaze drilling holes into the head of the man who did this to her. "That feeling of numbness will recede as you feed. Or, if you don't, you'll get used to it."

"What… did you do to me?" Anny asked, hesitating as she heard her voice. It didn't sound much different, it was just… new. It wasn't scratchy from disuse or dehydration.

"Why, isn't it obvious?" Alistair asked, flabbergasted. "I've born you. Turned you into a great being of amazing power. You should be thankful it was me who did it and not some lowlife scum."

"Born me?" Anny asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Why, child, you have been reborn. As a vampire. You are now just as if I had conceived you with another being just as your _original_ father had done. You are my daughter and I am your father, the ceremony, your sacred mother."

"_Father!?_" Anny screeched, her face contorting into a monstrosity. She made to lunge for the elder vampire, but instead just floated in circles, flipping up and down and left and right, staying in the exact same spot. "You are _not_ my father!"

"Tut tut, child," Alistair tsked, floating over to Anny just as she righted herself. "You have much to learn, and," he dodged a swipe from Anny and grabbed her by the throat, slamming her into the cave wall and causing some rocks to break away and nearly fall on them, Alistair's powers changing their course. He leaned in close, whispering in her now very sensitive ear. "I will not teach you if you do not behave."

**My Own Note: Hope you enjoyed it! Please review and tell us what you think!**

**A/N: and make sure to tell everyone about TIME ADVENTURE WOOT ^-^**

**P.S. (Anny's name was HER idea! PFT!)**

**P.P.S. Do not worry, fellow Marceline obsessers, she WILL show up next chapter. Who else will teach our new vampire... LOVE!?**


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